Six areas of unincorporated Pinellas face tax hike for fire service

Thousands of residents in unincorporated Pinellas will likely see the property tax rate they pay for fire protection jump as much as 57 percent next year.

The increase is caused by escalating costs, reduced tax revenue from lower property values, and other factors.

The news came Tuesday when County Administrator Bob LaSala unveiled his proposed budgets for the 12 "dependent" fire districts. Because the county has no fire department, it contracts with cities and fire departments to provide service to those areas, which have a population of about 157,800, or about 17.2 percent of the county's 916,719 residents.

The tax rates vary from fire district to fire district. Six — Belleair Bluffs, Gandy, High Point, Pinellas Park, Seminole and Tarpon Springs — would see no change in their tax rate. Gandy is served by St. Petersburg. High Point is jointly served by Pinellas Park and Largo.

But the tax rates in the other six would go up.

Tierra Verde, which is served by the Lealman Fire Department, would see the smallest increase, about 0.2 percent, from $1.909 per thousand dollars of assessed, taxable property to $1.912. The requested increase comes from a $7,000 proposed increase in operating costs and a $63,000 increase for savings.

In unincorporated Largo, the proposal would increase the rate by about 1.4 percent, from about $3.51 to $3.56. The increase is needed, LaSala said, because property values there dropped by about 4 percent.

Property owners in the unincorporated Safety Harbor area would see their rates increase from about $2.68 per thousand dollars of assessed, taxable value to about $2.76, a 3.1 percent rise. The funding — about $29,000 — would go into reserves.

Property owners in the unincorporated areas served by South Pasadena, Clearwater and Dunedin would see much larger increases.

In the South Pasadena fire district, where many property owners have long complained about high fire rates, there would be a 43.6 percent jump in the property tax rate. That would take it from the current $3.13 per thousand dollars of property value to $4.49. The increased revenue would be used to cover higher operating costs, among other items.

LaSala has proposed raising the fire tax rate for residents of unincorporated Clearwater by about 20.7 percent. That would take the rate from about $2.66 to about $3.21. The increase is needed, he said, because of a 6.4 percent decrease in property values in that district and a $150,000 jump in operating costs, among other things.

Property owners in the unincorporated Dunedin area would see the largest increase — about 57.4 percent, from about $2.26 to about $3.55 per thousand dollars of assessed, taxable property value. Among the reasons for the increase are a 0.5 percent decrease in property values and a proposed increase of about $153,000 in operating costs.

***** Per thousand dollars of assessed, taxable property value. To figure your estimated property tax, subtract exemptions (such as homestead) from the assessed value of the property. Divide that result by 1,000 and then multiply by the tax rate.

TAMPA — Disbelief will eventually give way to acceptance.The Lightning isn't there yet.It isn't there yet in a lot of ways.Will it ever be?Just wondering.Really, what guarantees are there?Late Wednesday night, Washington Capitals captain A...

TAMPA — Joe Capitano Sr. invested in the 1400 block of E Seventh Avenue in 1985, never doubting the huge potential of the property for Ybor City.But the deal to build a $52 million boutique hotel on the site didn’t start to come together six years ag...

Its American Athletic Conference tournament hopes flat-lining, USF's baseball team has spent the past 30 or so hours reviving itself with plain ol' CPR.Clutch Pitching and Resolve.Needing back-to-back wins on a humid Clearwater day to remain alive, t...

TAMPA — Tampa officials said Thursday they are reducing the speed limit on Bayshore Boulevard, one day after a mother was struck and killed by a speeding car while pushing her 21-month-old daughter across the city’s signature street.Starting Friday, ...

As a fifth-grader, Aleesha Mance wrote an essay about her sister’s killer, explaining how peer pressure and drugs led the 17-year-old to make a deadly choice.
In high school, she searched for his name online. She read news articles about a tee...

Hope Cheston was 14 when, outside a friend’s birthday party in October 2012 in Jonesboro, Georgia, an armed security guard at an apartment complex raped her on a picnic table.For years, she thought she’d be forgotten like countless other sexual assau...

Scientists are in consensus: The 2018 hurricane season could be an active one.On Thursday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2018 Atlantic hurricane seasonal outlook. It’s calling for between 10 and 16 named storms, five...

Regardless of the reason, the cancellation of the U.S.-North Korea summit to address Pyonyang’s nuclear program is hardly the worst possible outcome of this high-stakes diplomatic gamble. President Donald Trump was unprepared, North Korea’s Kim Jong ...